Responding to Bell on Hell: Some Lessons for Evangelicals
The January 2012 edition of Credo Magazine is now available online. From the Credo website:
The January issue argues for the exclusivity of the gospel, especially in light of the movement known as inclusivism. This issue will seek to answer questions like: Can those who have never heard the gospel of Christ be saved? Will everyone be saved in the end or will some spend an eternity in hell? Must someone have explicit faith in Christ to be saved? Contributors include David Wells, Robert Peterson, Michael Horton, Gerald Bray, Todd Miles, Todd Borger, Ardel Caneday, Nathan Finn, Trevin Wax, Michael Reeves, and many others.
My own article is titled “Responding to Bell on Hell: Some Lessons for Evangelicals.” It’s not a review of Rob Bell’s provocative book Love Wins, but rather it recounts how (mostly) American evangelicals have responded to the controversial book since it’s release almost a year ago. While I don’t hide my traditional (and I think biblical) convictions about the afterlife, the chapter provides a mostly descriptive account of the controversy before closing with some prescription for evangelicals. I hope you’ll read the article, as well as the whole issue.
(Image credit.)
2 Responses to “Responding to Bell on Hell: Some Lessons for Evangelicals”
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Nathan A. Finn serves as Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He's a husband, father, elder, baseball enthusiast, and Broadway musical fan. He's still trying to figure out why we drive on parkways and park on driveways.
Nathan
His views are disturbing and offensive enough as it is, but what I found most sad and unbelievable were the number of people who claimed that his views were not a problem. And I’m not talking about Brian McLauren–we all know he’s a total theological whack job. I mean, reading people on blogs who were supposedly orthodox in their beliefs saying that what Bell taught was no big deal.
God is love.
Mankind has free will.
therefore,
there is a hell
but
C.S. Lewis commented that the door of hell was always locked from the INSIDE . . .
But that’s another story . . .